Sister, Don't Cry
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: Daughters aren't the only ones who can make the world seem beautiful in times of darkness, sometimes you just need a sister. Present for PRINCESSJOEY630 from me and Alex.E.Andras, total Jisbon and Rigspelt with kiddie fluff.


**This is just a quick one-shot for princessjoey630 - we love you, hun, and you've had a hard time recently. This is a present from me and Alex. (dacia_andras) to show that we love you lots, and we're making you our honorary sister because you're awesome :) Lyrics are from Collective Soul's Sister Don't Cry, an amazing song.**

**Sister, Don't Cry**

_Overseas through the air_

_Touched your heart down with care_

_All the thoughts left behind_

_Soon will catch you in time_

_Well, if I could, you know I would_

_Let salvation reign on you_

_So, won't push you away_

_All this pain that you've been through_

_Sister don't cry_

_Sister don't cry no more_

_Sister don't cry anymore_

When you have a daughter, a case involving young children automatically becomes heart-wrenching, exhausting, and emotionally draining within the first hour. Patrick used to find this watching the news, how balancing his new daughter in one arm and the remote in the other used to leave him close to tears some nights when you heard about a missing child, a murdered child, an abused child, and he would look at his own tiny daughter with her innocence and inexperience of the world and become instantly terrified that she could be hurt in that way. It was part of being a parent – the constant fear that something might happen to their child. He, unfortunately, had lost his first daughter fifteen years ago now, his tiny Claire residing in heaven with her mother, who had also been taken. Catching their killer had enabled him to move on from their murders and find a new life with Teresa Lisbon, the woman he'd never expected he'd fall for, but you don't get to choose who you love.

He had fallen in love with her, made her fall in love with him, and they had married on the first anniversary of Red John's execution, wanting to give a genuine reason to celebrate that particular anniversary. Eight months after that, they had welcomed a daughter of their own into the world. He had to admit, there had been a small internal panic attack when they had discovered at the sonogram they were having a girl, but he had grown, and he had quickly become excited about the prospect of having a daughter. He was eager to buy pink paint, and princess dresses, and fairy crowns.

And when his daughter was placed in arms, he'd been happy enough to cry, and unashamed to show these tears to the world. This tiny screaming child was his second child, but his first child with Teresa, their tiny miracle which was a testament to how it was possible for two people to heal with the help of love. They named her Emma, after Teresa's mother, and she became the most beautiful child very quickly. Her hair stayed blonde from birth, curling just like his own, and her piercing eyes were a mixture of his stunning blue and Teresa's emerald green. There was no lying to those eyes, no escaping the guilt she could put into them when you announced that she couldn't have ice cream for dinner.

Four months before Emma had been born, however, there had been another child on the CBI team. Wayne Rigsby and Grace Van Pelt had been married in a private ceremony, with only their close family and the team to officiate the service. They later found out that they only rushed their marriage because they wanted it to be official before a daughter of their own arrived. At end of Spring they had all gathered at the hospital for the birth of baby Rigsby, who would later be named Samantha – there was no particular desire for her name, just a name that they had both agreed on during nine months of bickering over baby name books.

Emma and Samantha grew up with each other every day of their lives. They went to the same day care, visited the same babysitters, and even started the same schools. They were best friends in the way that all little girls should be, and that had grown from crawling around on the floor together, to lying on their fronts before Patrick's couch, drawing in coloured markers in whichever secret language they had developed that week. They had their mothers make them matching friendship bracelets, and Uncle Cho had bought them a 'best friends' necklace that would split down the middle, enabling them to wear half the pendant each. They giggled, they fluttered their eyelashes, and they made the entire building fall in love with them. Even Hightower had been slightly teary when they were first presented in their matching school uniforms on the first day of school.

So when you had daughters, you considered every girl in the world to be as innocent and untouchable as your own. Patrick wanted to believe that there were no children being beaten or hurt by their families, or even strangers, because there was no way that anyone in his daughter's life could do that to her, but alas, that is not the way that the world worked – their employment was testament to that.

Their current case had been particularly hard on them all. A young couple were arrested for severe corporate financial fraud, and would serve a long prison sentence each. It had taken four long days to get a confession out of them, which had left their young daughter, Johanna in the CBI building, constantly waiting for her parents to take her home. However, once the parents had confessed there would be no going home, and there were no other family members in the state that could take the girl in, so they had to wait for the girl's uncle to fly in from New York to collect her. He would be there Friday morning, so it was all a waiting game until then.

Friday morning came through slowly, and by this time, Emma and Samantha had developed a quick friendship with the girl they called 'Joey', since they were coming to the CBI building after school and were letting the girl colour with them. They were all six years old, and managed to strike up that instant schoolgirl rapport together. Now, they were all doing the same. The girl's school was having a teacher training day and Joey's uncle was on his way from New York, due to arrive any time now.

"What are you drawing?" Emma asked Joey, the two of them crouched over multiple sheets of paper at the conference table. They were both kneeling on the chairs and half-lying on the table, rather than bringing the paper closer to the edge.

"My dog," Joey answered. "He's called Pumba."

Emma leaned closer to see what she was drawing. "Your dog looks nice," she said sweetly.

"He is nice. His birthday is the same day as my daddy's," she added sadly, looking towards the interview room where she had last seen her father the evening before.

"Is he going to live with you in New York too?" Emma asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, he always lives with me all the time."

Emma screwed up her face. "My daddy won't let me have a dog. He's 'lergic."

Patrick Jane, who had been lying on the couch quietly 'supervising' the children, smiled to himself. His daughter had been begging for a dog for years now, pretty much since she had learned how to say the word 'doggy', but unfortunately his allergy prevented this.

Samantha looked up from the coloured bits of string she was playing with on the other side of Emma. "I've got two doggies now," she said. "We got a baby one. She's white and all mine."

"I've got a cat," Emma announced.

"No, you don't," Samantha whined.

"I do!"

"He's not yours."

Joey frowned at them. "You can't have a cat if he's not yours."

"But his mum and dad don't want him and don't feed him anymore," Emma told their newest friend. "And I give him my lunch all the time and he likes me. But I can't tell my mommy and daddy that."

Noted, Patrick thought to himself from the couch. His daughter is secretly feeding the neighbours un-cared for cat. It was incredibly sweet of her, but he wasn't too pleased about the cat eating human food that was supposed to be for his daughter.

"Is it nice in New York?" Samantha asked Joey.

The girl shrugged. "I think so. My uncle likes it."

Emma turned to the other girl. "We should go and live there when we're grown ups," she decided.

Samantha frowned. "But you said we were living in A'stralia," she said, pronouncing it wrong but giving the general idea.

"We can live there too," Emma nodded. "We'll live everywhere."

Samantha nodded at this, and the three girls went back to quietly humming and doing as they were before. The ding of the elevator attracted Patrick's attention and a quick open of his eye revealed that Teresa had arrived on their floor with a slightly elder man – Joey's uncle, he assumed. He stood from the couch and went over to the girls. He hated to interrupt the art session but the girl's uncle had a plane to catch. All of them gathered together in the bull pen to say goodbye to the young girl, as they had all spent time with her during the week.

They said their goodbyes, wished their best, and then watched as they turned to leave. The two little girls, however, stopped them.

"Not yet!"

Emma and Samantha went over to Joey and held out something they were both holding together. "We made you a present," Samantha said. When their hands opened it revealed weaved string of red and purple strands.

Joey took it in her own hands. "It's pretty."

"It's the same as our ones," Emma said, pulling up their sleeves to show the matching bracelets on their own wrists. "Our mommy's made our ones but we made your one because it's a present from us."

"Thank you," Joey whispered, as Grace leaned down to tie it to her wrist, the same as the other girls. Joey stared at it in wonder.

"It's special," Samantha told her. "It means that your sisters with us now."

"We decided we're sisters," Emma said.

"So you're our sister too now," Samantha finished.

Joey stared at them with an open mouth. "We're all sisters?"

The girls nodded. "Forever and ever."

Joey smiled slowly. "I never had a sister before."

"You get to be our sister now," Samantha smiled at her.

Joey's uncle turned to the agents standing around, mouthing a thank you to them as the girls all squashed together in a hug.

Patrick just smiled.

Daughters might make the world a more frightening place in a number of ways. But on days like this, they also showed that the world, and the friendships in it, could really be the most beautiful of places.

_While the scenes shuffle 'round_

_Let your world anchor down_

_Pull your heard from your sleeve_

_First react, then believe_

_You won't always get thunder_

_To warn you of storms ahead_

_So bury all this pain_

_And get on with your life again_

_Conquer some serenity_

_Lay yourself in fields of poetry_

_Close your eyes to all you see_

_Lay your weary head here with me_


End file.
